When the department did finally respond, well beyond the usual 30-day turnaround, the receipts of Mr Abbott's alcohol purchases were heavily censored, with details about what brands and types of alcohol was bought redacted.

The receipts did show $7340 worth of alcohol was purchased between February 9 and April for various personal functions hosted by Mr Abbott; bureaucrats insisted details about specific alcohol brands were Mr Abbott's "personal information".

Speaking at a senate estimates hearing yesterday, Ms Wong likened the lack of transparency to an episode of ABC comedy Utopia.

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Deputy secretary Elizabeth Kelly said the request was unusual and so had taken longer to process.

"We reflected very deeply about the appropriate way to balance the competing factors here, which were the privacy and personal information about the prime minister's beverage preferences and the public interest in that detail being known," she said.

The exchange comes after Mr Abbott yesterday agreed to pay for an Italian marble table broken during a wild party in parliament house on the night he was dumped as prime minister.